No extreme heat expected this summer

By Jolene Perron
For those who have been enjoying the cooler weather, Environment Canada is predicting the remaining months of the summer to be near or below normal temperatures.
Environment Canada meteorologist Mitch Meredith explained, the computer modules predicting the weather patterns indicate for the months of August and September, temperatures should remain right around “normal.”

When looking at the next few months as a whole, there may be a couple heat events, but they will be followed by cooler days, which will average out to near normal temperatures, unlike the past few years, where our seasons have resulting in record-breaking highs in the summer months, followed by extreme lows in the winter months.

Though the sun has been shiningregularly this summer, extreme heat is not in the forecast.

“It doesn’t look like we’re starting any kind of period of extreme heat, some of the forecasts are even slightly below normal,” said Meredith. “It’s a bit of a departure from the weather we have been seeing over the last few years where we might have some heat warnings out and we get a lot of warm nights. This weekend for example we were forecasting low temperatures around 15 degrees so it’s quite pleasant.”

Meredith explained we aren’t at much risk of extreme heat events. Even last week, the hottest day had a humidex of about 36 degrees. Similarly, Meredith explained while there isn’t a clear signal, it looks to be near normal. However he said, the prediction system is not 100 per cent accurate.

“These climate outlook models, as time goes on, are a little less perfect so we’ll still have to keep checking as to what might happen in August,” said Meredith. “The month of August can often be a little bit warmer and humid and the models might change so we are always checking them but the indications are that because of the slightly cooler spring and this near normal July, when you average that out over the summer, and do reports it might show that we are actually going to be getting a slightly below normal summer.”